I am going to say it, I might prefer sweet pickled pork cottage roll over ham. It has the same kind of ham flavour but with just a little something more. It is essentially a boneless pork shoulder butt roast but its cured in a sweet and salty brine. It's cheaper than a bone in ham and not a formed ham (made from many different cuts of pork). It is simple to make and would be very hard to screw up. You cook it in liquid so it should never come out dry or over done like a messed up ham could.

This was a locally produced cottage roll made by Quality Meats in the G.T.A. Quality Meats/Fletcher's product is part of the Sofina Foods family of products and is made only for the Ontario market. Jay Eatz would also recommend Maple Leaf Foods cottage roll as an excellent Canadian alternative, but anyways lets get to how to make it. Only two ingredients needed, bay leaves and onion. You can add peppercorns, garlic and onion powder but I don't think its necessary as the product has plenty of flavour on it's own.

Rinse of the cottage roll and place in a large pot. Rough chop the onion, add to the pot and place a couple of bay leaves in as well. Now fill the pot up with enough water to cover the meat.

I had my no carb friend over again so I made some creamed corn to go with the cottage roll. I opted to go the dual kaiser bun route and made some cottage roll on a bun with a squirt of French's mustard.

Now the cooking part is the easiest, cover and simmer for 2 to 3 hours depending on the size of the roll. The one I made took about 2 1/2 hours. Remove from pan and place on cutting board and let rest for a few moments. It will be super hot so be careful and it will be easier to slice up if you let it cool a bit. When it's cooled a bit remove the netting that it's wrapped in. Cut off the layer of fat and slice.

So next time your thinking ham give a cottage roll a go. Who knows you might make a permanent switch.